An Eccentric Shear-Lag Model and Implications on the Strength of Fibrous composites
Abstract
The stress field in the vicinity of a broken fiber-reinforced composite is analyzed by means of a shear-lag model. The broken filament is positioned eccentrically relative to its neighboring fibers to simulate the commonplace non-uniformity of fiber spacing within the transverse plane. It is shown that a fiber break gives rise to severe bending, in addition to tension, in the neighboring fiber - with a substantial overstress focused on the nearest unbroken filament. The complex nature of the stress field, which is caused by the failure of a fiber within the composite casts doubt on the applicability of failure statistics derived from tensile failure data of single fibers to predict the strength of composites. (TTL)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 19, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA229733
Entities
People
- Y. Weitsman
Organizations
- University of Tennessee